DP 34 - Three Degrees of Wisdom; DP 36 - The Angels and the Palace of Wisdom

DP 34 [2]

There are . . . three degrees of wisdom -
natural, spiritual and celestial.
A person is in the enjoyment
of the natural degree of wisdom
as long as he lives in the world.
This degree can be perfected in him then
to its highest point;
and yet he cannot enter the spiritual degree,
because the spiritual degree
is not continuous with the natural degree
by a continuous connection,
but is conjoined with it by correspondences.

After death a person is in the enjoyment
of the spiritual degree of wisdom,
and this degree, too, is such
that it can be perfected to its highest point;
but still he cannot enter
the celestial degree of wisdom,
because the celestial degree
is not continuous with the spiritual degree
by a continuous connection,
but is conjoined with it by correspondences.

It can be seen from this
that wisdom can be elevated in a threefold way,
and that in each degree
it can be perfected in a single way
to its highest point.

DP 36

The wisdom which comes to a person's perception
is a perception of truth from an affection for it,
especially a perception of spiritual truth.
For there is civil truth, moral truth, and spiritual truth.
People who have a perception of spiritual truth
from an affection for it
also have a perception of moral and civil truth,
for an affection for spiritual truth
is the soul of these perceptions.

I have sometimes spoken with angels about wisdom,
and the angels have said
that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord,
because the Lord is wisdom itself,
and that one who casts out hell from himself
comes into that conjunction,
and comes into it
to the extent that he casts hell out.

The angels said
that they represent wisdom to themselves
as a magnificent and very ornate palace,
into which one ascends by twelve steps.
No one, they said, arrives at the first step
except as a result of the Lord
by conjunction with Him;
that everyone ascends
in the measure of the conjunction;
and that as he ascends,
he perceives that no one is wise of himself,
but from the Lord.
Moreover, they said
that those things which he is wise about,
in comparison to those things
which he is not wise about,
are as a few drops of water to a great lake.

The twelve steps to the palace of wisdom
symbolize goods conjoined with truths
and truths conjoined with goods.